The invention relates to a cover panel for an aircraft, comprising a decompression opening.
The fuselage of a normal passenger aircraft is divided into several regions, among others a passenger region and a cargo region. During cruise flights, the aircraft is surrounded by cold environmental conditions of low air pressure, which requires air conditioning and pressurisation of the aircraft fuselage. For this purpose, bleed air from the engines is normally introduced into the passenger cabin, which bleed air, when it has passed through the passenger region, can escape from the passenger region through ventilation openings that have been placed in the cover panels such that they are positioned in the area of the passenger foot space. Should the case arise where the fuselage is torn open or is connected to the environment of the aircraft, for example by way of a defective cargo compartment door, as a result of the large pressure differential between the ambient air of the aircraft fuselage and the interior region of the aircraft fuselage, which region is directly behind the opening that has arisen, air from this region escapes to the outside until finally in the region behind the opening that has arise, the pressure is similar to the ambient pressure of the aircraft. If for example the cargo compartment is the affected region, then as a result of the escaped air there is a large pressure differential between the passenger region and the cargo region that is separated from it. This would result in the cabin floor that separates the passenger region from the cargo region being subjected to large forces that might lead to damage to the cabin floor and thus to damage of air-safety-relevant system elements and structure elements.
For the purpose of bringing about rapid pressure compensation in such a case, so called decompression flaps are provided between the passenger region and the cargo region, which flaps in the case of a fast drop in pressure within the cargo region (or in some other region) open up and provide a flow path with an enlarged cross section.
Such a decompression flap arrangement is, for example, disclosed in WO 2007/073787 A1. However, this decompression device is associated with a disadvantage in that its design is relatively complex, which in turn results in greater weight, more expensive production, and high maintenance expenditure for the aircraft operator.